Human Rights Commission in Mozambique

The newly formed Mozambican Human Rights Commission is rapidly taking shape. Recently, the five reprsentatives from civil society on the commission's oversight body were chosen and all five of them are representatives of current or former grantees of OSISA - MOCIZA, the Mozambican Human Rights League, Women’s Lawyers Association and the Eduardo Mondlane Legal Aid Clinic/Centre for Human Rights and the Mozambican Law Society.

"We are obviously delighted that our investment in individual and institutional capacity building is bearing fruit and that the premier national human rights oversight body in Mozambique - and through it all Mozambicans - will benefit from this investment," said Leopoldo de Amaral, OSISA's Human Rights Programme Manager.

The other 6 members will be elected by Parliament and appointed by Government as prescribed by the UN Paris Principles, which set the international standard for the establishment of independent national human rights institutions (NHRI).

NHRI are independent permanent organs of the State, which derive their mandate from the Constitution (not from Government) established to promote and protect human rights. Although they do not have judiciary powers they can summon any private citizen or duty bearers to questioning and issue recommendations.

OSISA will be broadening its engagement with these critical institutions across southern Africa since they have the access to information and political legitimacy to call on governments to adhere to the rule of law, good governance and human rights. International bodies that are seized with promoting and protecting human rights, such as the UN Human Rights Council and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, have also started paying more attention recently to the importance of NHRIs in improving governance and human rights protection.

However, most of them are largely disengaged and dysfunctional due to lack of good leadership, funding and personnel. But with additional support, they could start to play a critical role in protecting human rights across the region.

This is great. Most of the NHRIs definitely need training and issues such as ensuring their independence will need to be addressed. The NHRIs have developed good relations with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and are also affiliate members of the African Court Coalition. At the domestic level NHRIs need to be more active and robust in investigating human rights violations and follow-up on implementation of their recommendations.

Free, fair and credible elections in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) remain a prerequisite to democratisation, members of the SADC Electoral Support Network (SADC-ESN) have reaffirmed.